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GERMANY, the leading economy in the European Union, is looking at the Philippines as the main source of some 200,000 nurses, specializing particularly in geriatric care, to fill its needs in the next four years, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Monday.

In a media forum, Baldoz said Germany’s nursing shortage was relayed to her in meetings with some of that country’s officials during an official trip to Europe last week, which coincided with the third year of the “Triple Win” agreement.

That agreement, signed in March 2013, ensures that Filipino nurses deployed to Germany would have adequate linguistic and professional preparation, free of charge, prior to entry to the country.

“The officials expressed a preference for hiring Filipino nurses,” Baldoz said at the Department of Labor and Employment’s first media forum for 2016 in Pasay City.

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Poe 26% (down from 28%), Duterte 25% (up from 24%), Binay 22% (up from 21%) and Roxas 20% (unchanged). Pulse Asia Survey commissioned by ABS-CBN. Conducted Mar 8 – 13, 2016. This survey was done AFTER the Supreme Court decision that voted favorably for Grace Poe to run after her natural born citizenship status and 10 year mandatory residency were questioned. Poe supporters were PROJECTING an estimated 10% UPWARD jump which did NOT materialize. Instead of Poe gaining percentage points, her POPULARITY is DECLINING (based on poll surveys) while Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Binay are gaining. These results are still too close to call with at least three candidates (Poe, Duterte and Binay) in a position to achieve victory. Mar Roxas, always at the tail end, is still hopeful that being the Aquino Administration candidate has a big advantage that coul

2016 Presidential survey front-runner Senator Grace Poe (now LOSING POINTS) with Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (now GAINING POINTS) and in a STATISTICAL TIE for FIRST PLACE. Vice President Jejomar Binay occupies the number three slot while DILG Secretary Mar Roxas is in fourth position.

d propel him to the Palace but HISTORY is not kind to administration candidates (Mitra in 1992 although Cory Aquino shifted to Ramos at the last minute, De Venecia in 1998 and Teodoro in 2010).

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POE LOSING POINTS, DUTERTE NOW IN 2ND AFTER SIGNIFICANT GAIN

The Standard presidential poll: Poe still ahead, Duterte now in 2nd place

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The presidential race has got even more intense as candidates kept tight margin from each other’s ratings.

Latest survey by The Standard conducted from February 24 to March 1 showed Sen. Grace Poe remains to be the frontrunner of the presidential race with 26 percent— but three points down from 29 percent in January.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte comes next with 24 percent, gaining most with four percentage points.

With a ±1.8 percent margin of error, however, Poe, Duterte, and Vice President Jejomar Binay with 23 percent are statistically tied for first place.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), Poe and Binay took the lead with 28 percent in the same survey. With a higher margin of error of ±6 percent in Metro Manila, Duterte is statistically tied with them at 23 percent.

The Standard Poll also revealed that across other major geographic areas, Poe and Binay are tied in North/Central Luzon with 34 percent and 33 percent respectively, with a margin of error of ±4 percent.

It also said that the two presidential candidates were tied in South Luzon/Bicol with Poe getting 32 percent and Binay with 27 percent.

According to the survey, Visayas continued to be Roxas’ bailiwick with 36 percent, while Duterte was the top choice of voters in Mindanao with a very high 49 percent.

By economic class, Poe lost her lead to Duterte among voters from Class A, B, and C. Poe’s ratings dropped from 30 percent in January to 21 percent in the latest survey, while Duterte’s increased from 27 percent in January to 30 percent.

“The campaign effect is kicking in and the race is expected to be very fluid given the upcoming debates and increased sorties of candidates,” Laylo added.

According to The Standard, the survey had 3,000 registered voters with biometrics as respondents, from 79 provinces across the country and 17 cities in NCR.

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos statue FITTINGLY blasted and DEFACED in a symbol of WRATH and ANGER for his regime. NEVER Again to Martial Law. NEVER Again to Marcos Rule.

By Jay Mathews and Bernard WidemanApril 23, 1978

The government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has taken over the national airline – without paying a cent so far to its former owners-after getting a $3 million bill for flights by Marcos’ wife, government and business sources say.The story of how Marcos seized Philippine Air Lines, with annual revenues or about $150 million, from Philippine entrepreneur Benigno Toda Jr. goes to the heart of Marcos’ success as one of Asia’s most powerful leaders and an influential figure in the development of U.S. strategic and economic interests in this part of the world.

Justifying each deal in terms of national development, he has transferred to his government or to his friends the country’s more crucial economic power centers-electric utilities, news media, transportation, banking and now Toda’s airline. All the takeovers have displayed Marcos’ skill at using the unspoken threat of his martial law power. rather than his actual military weight.

Toda, who had acquired Philippine Air Lines because of his political favors to an earlier Philippine president, suggested a price for purchase of his 1.78 million shares in the company. Marco reportedly promised to pay but did not respond to Toda’s offer. Six months later. Toda is still waiting on his private island off the Philippine coast for Marcos or his agent to resume the negotiations.

Meanwhile, he tells friends he is thinking of selling the island fast before Marcos finds way to acquire that, since a Marcos friend has already taken over a neighboring island from the Lopez family.

The relationship between Marcos and Toda had for years appeared to be cordial and Marcos was an occasional visitor to Toda’s island. Then in early 1976 rumors began to circulate that Imelda Marcos had run up an enormous unpaid bill for several charter flights overseas.

Marcos’ wife is also governor of greater Manila and a key foreign policy negotiator for her husband but many of the flights involved a mix of pleasure and business airline officials say. PAL officials said she owed about $6 million for flight services, including the cost of keeping the DC-8. she ususlly used idle for weeks waiting for her to complete visits to Middle East, European and U.S. cities.

She once insisted on flying out of London after the night noise curfew and thus forced the airline to pay a large fine, PAL officials said.

One day, according to a witness to the conversation, Marcos approached Toda in church.

So Toda sent a bill for $3 million. One top airline official said it was only about half what could have been charged, “but Mrs. Marcos never forgave Toda.”

Soon after, a Manila daily, the Evening Post, began a series of articles alleging management abuses at the airline – a situation that the Manila press, totally controlled by Marcos, had up to then ignored.

The Post’s publisher and editor-in-chief is Kerima Polotan, the author of Imelda Marcos’ official biography. Much of the material for the stories appeared to come from Marcos aide Juan Tuvera, who is a government representative on the PAL board and Polotan’s husband.

Another paper, the Times-Journal, controlled by Imelda Marcos’ younger brother, later joined the Evening Post in exposing the airlines’ late departures and in alleging siphoning of company funds. The other Manila papers ignored the story.

Last October, Marcos asked Toda to come to the palace. In a back room where he tolds confidential conferences, according to a source close to Toda, Marcos asked, “Benny, are you prepared to transfer control of PAL to the government and not exercise the rights of your shares?”

“Of course, Mr. President,” Toda said according to the source. Marcos reportedly promised that the government would buy Toda’s shares at a mutually agreeable price, but he did not respond to the price Toda suggested.

Those close to Toda say he was smart enought to realize he would do himself no good putting up a fight against a president holding full executive and legislative powers-and the right to appoint all judges.

Asked earlier this month when Toda would he paid, Marcos said: “I do believe he has been paid.” An official of the Government Service Insurrance Corp., the government financial institution that formally took over the airline, later said no payment had been made.

The airline takeover, like many other Marcos maneuvers, seems a combination of the best and worst motives, a mix of the personal wrath of the powerful first lady, Imelda Marcos. and the indignation of government officials who saw Toda milking the airline’s profits in a style favored by many businessmen here, whether in Marcos’ camp or not.

Philippine Air Lines (PAL) was founded just before World War II by the Soriano family, the makers of San Miguel beer and one of the wealthiest families in the Philippines.

In the early 1960s, the government of President Diosado Macapagal took control of the airline and made Toda chairman of the board, in return for the assistance he had given the relatively poor Macapagal in his presidential campaign, according to PAL Executive Vice President Rafael Loga.

Toda purchased 75 percent of the stock, leaving the government with most of the rest. In the 1970s the airline’s international flights prospered but it continually asked for fare increases to meet what it said were losses in domestic flights.

Toda was reaping large personal profits through exclusive contracts awarded to small companies of his that provided management services, ground transport, spare parts, insurance and janitor services to the airline. This is a favorite device of Philippine businessmen who control large, profitable enterprises.

The airline sought to buy more planes and improve service, and was stymied by the government’s refusal to provide the same generous loan guarantees it had given Philippine firms favored by Marcos.

Marcos’ aides have praised the takeover as the only way to improve the airline’s menagement and profitablitiy. They say PAL must keep pace with the country’s rapid construction of hotels-many controlled by Marcos’ friends-and other tourist attractions. Some businessmen with independent, profitable companies say the incident, and others like it, make them uncomfortable.

So far, Marcos has deflected criticism his business dealings have brought.

When some American newspapers and magazines and Rep. Clarence Long (D-Md.) began to investigate the profits made by Marcos’ friend Herminio Disini in a contract for a Westinghouse nuclear plant, Marcos quickly divested Disini of three companies. They appeared to be the least profitable of the 40 or so in the Disini conglomerate.

Marcos ordered an investigation of the Westinghouse deal in early January, but he indicated to reporters this month the results would be a long time coming.

With fewer and fewer rivals for power in the Philippine economy, Marcos has become increasingly adept at holding American multinational corporations at bay. Some faced with the prospect of unfriendly regulatory action by Marcos have agreed to sell out to Filipino businessmen, including many Marcos friends.

One of Marcos’ most ambitious takeovers has left Citibank, a major U.S. bank looking for someone to pay off a $3 million loan. When Marcos closed down the news media empire of his political enemy. Eugenio Lopez Sr., and jailed Lopez’ son for an alleged assassination plot, the elder Lopez signed away to the government or to Marcos’ friends and relatives the $400 million Manila Electric Co., The Manila Chronicle Newspapers and a network of six television and 21 radio stations.

The Lopez family received little for its $20 million interest in the electric company. It got irregular rental payments for the newspaper, which are now about $1.4 million in arrears, according to Lopez family members.

The elder Lopez died in the United States in 1975. Eugenio Jr. escaped last year and went to the United States, where he was granted political asylum.

For the TV-radio network, the Lopezes said they received nothing.

Marcos said last year that Roberto Benedicto, his friend and former fraternity brother who took over management of the network, and the Lopezes had a lease agreement. Benedicto, in an affidavit last year denied he was leasing the facilities. He said the network had been “sequestered” by the government.

That apparently left no one legally obilged to pay back the $3 million Citibank had lent the Lopezes, bank officials said.

If there is an outright government takeover of the network, said government press official Greg Cendena, “We would hope to repay the debts.”

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RCBC Angela Torres confirmed that William Go PERSONALLY WITHDREW PHP 20 MILLION from the RCBC Jupiter branch. This statement was made in a DZMM Teleradyo telephone interview. RCBC branch employee Agarrado testified in a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation that it was Branch Manager Maia Dequito who drove away with the money. Businessman William Go previously VEHEMENTLY DENIED that the peso account in his name was his and, in fact, he stated that the account in his name was opened WITHOUT HIS CONSENT and PRIOR KNOWLEDGE.

At the time of this writing, the Senate is in an EXECUTIVE SESSION, meaning out of public view with RCBC Branch Manager Maya Dequito as the main witness. The RCBC lawyer, former ACCRA lawyer Maria Cecilia Fernandez-Estavillo, now head of legal and regulatory affairs at RCBC, CHARMED her way in the Senate investigation who tried to pass all the BLAME on the RCBC Jupiter Branch Manager Maia Dequto. Dequito has always stated that all her actions were done upon orders of RCBC President Lorenzo Tan.

PHOTO: Center of RCBC money laundering scandal, businessman William Go, who has previously DENIED any involvement in the stolen money from Bangladesh which was wire transfered in dollars and converted to Philippine pesos. Said amount for a total of 80 MILLION US Dollars was then laundered using three Philippine casinos.

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Alan to Bongbong: Return stolen riches

Cayetano says rival must apologize for hiding loot

By Julit C. Jainar, Inquirer Visayas, February 28, 2016

CEBU CITY—Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should not apologize for martial law, but he should return the wealth that his family allegedly stole from the nation during their 20 years in power and apologize for his role in concealing it, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said on Friday.

Cayetano, who is contesting the vice presidential race with Marcos and four other candidates in the May 9 national elections, acknowledged that Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, should not apologize for his father’s iron-fist rule, during which thousands of Filipinos were killed, disappeared or died in prison.

“I stated that the sin of the father is not the sin of the son. If the father did something wrong, the son should not be blamed for it,” Cayetano told local journalists during a campaign visit to Cebu City.

“But if the son is involved in spiriting away billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth that the government is trying to recover, that’s another story,” Cayetano said.

“Operation Big Bird showed that he made arrangements to make sure that the government could not lay its hands on those billions,” he added.

“Operation Big Bird” was a failed attempt in 1986 to recover $213 million (P10.16 billion) in ill-gotten wealth allegedly stashed by the Marcos family in Swiss banks.

It was initiated by retired military general Jose Almonte and banker Michael de Guzman but was called off because it did not have the approval of the administration of then President Corazon Aquino.

The late Sen. Joker Arroyo had said the operation was not code-named “Big Bird” when it was presented to President Aquino. He said the code name was coined by the media.

Inheritors

“[The Marcoses] inherited the money so for me what is more important than saying sorry is their returning the wealth that they allegedly stole from the nation,” Cayetano said.

And Senator Marcos, he said, should apologize for his role in concealing his family’s billions of dollars in alleged ill-gotten wealth.

If the Marcoses would insist that they legitimately owned those billions, they should explain where all that wealth came from, he said.

The Inquirer’s efforts to reach Marcos or his spokesperson for comment on Saturday were unsuccessful.

The Marcoses have repeatedly denied amassing ill-gotten wealth, insisting that the family wealth has been legitimately acquired.

They fell from power in 1986, ran out of the country by the Edsa People Power Revolution. They lived for years in Hawaii, where the ousted dictator Marcos died in 1989.

According to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), created in 1986 to recover the alleged loot, $4 billion had been recovered and given to the national treasury.

Recovered funds have been used mostly for land reform. As ordered by a Hawaii court, $210 million (P10 billion) was used to compensate about 10,000 victims of human rights abuses during martial law.

The government hopes to raise $17.7 million from an auction of some confiscated Marcos jewelry, property and stocks, sources said this month.

PCGG head Richard Amurao said the government was still seeking to recover $1 billion through 100 court cases in the Philippines and other countries.

“We don’t really know if the $10-billion estimate is accurate but what we can tell you [about the $1 billion now sought] is based from estimates of the court cases and from what we already recovered,” Amurao said.

More than half of the court cases are civil lawsuits to recover shares of stock, real estate, cash and jewelry, he said.

A quarter of the cases involve “behest loans” that state-owned banks gave individuals with political connections to the late strongman, he said.

Former PCGG Chair Andres Bautista, now head of the Commission on Elections, said most of the cases under litigation were complicated and difficult because government prosecutors could no longer locate witnesses and find documentary evidence.

“Some of the key players are also back in power,” Bautista said.

Members of the Marcos family remain active in politics. The matriarch, former first lady Imelda Marcos, is a congresswoman from Ilocos Norte province, the family’s political base where her eldest daughter, Imee Marcos, is the governor.

Now Senator Marcos is trying to win the vice presidency, which, if he wins, will put him next door to the presidency—and the ultimate political comeback for his family.

No apology

Marcos, tied with Sen. Francis Escudero for the first place in voter preference polls for the vice presidential race, has never apologized for his father’s abusive rule.

“What am I to say sorry [for]?” he said during a television interview last August.

He said that during his father’s administration thousands of kilometers of roads were built, the Philippines had one of the highest literacy rates in Asia, and the country was an exporter of rice, not an importer, as it is now.

Marcos, 58, is pressing a revisionist view of the Philippines’ harrowing experience during martial law, aimed at rehabilitating his family and putting it back in power.

He has built a coalition from his father’s remaining supporters and young people who were not yet born when martial law was declared in 1972.

President Aquino, son of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., the leader of the opposition to Marcos who was assassinated in 1983, is trying to prevent the election of the late dictator’s son to an office that would put him within reach of Malacañang.

On Thursday, at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos from power, Mr. Aquino pushed hard against Senator Marcos’ revisionist campaign, belying the candidate’s claim that the Philippines saw its best years during his father’s administration.

Without naming Marcos,

Mr. Aquino blasted the senator for refusing to apologize for the sufferings Filipinos went through during his father’s rule instead of asking the nation to be given a chance to right the wrong his father had done.

Both Nacionalistas

Both Cayetano and Marcos belong to the Nacionalista Party (NP). Cayetano said he had no plans of dropping his campaign even if he ranked fourth in the polls, behind Escudero, Marcos and Rep. Leni Robredo.

“We run because we believe we are the better choice,” he said.

Cayetano was in Cebu for a dialogue with patients at government-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

His visit was part of the dialogue with the people strategy of his campaign with his presidential running mate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. With reports from the wires and Inquirer Research

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Four out of six P-Noy appointees to the Supreme Court voted to retain Senator Grace Poe in the upcoming Presidential race. A total of 9 SC justices favored the Poe position against six who sided with the Comelec stand that Senator Poe is not a natural-born Filipino citizen and that she did not meet the 10 year residency requirement needed to run for President.

Political pundits see this Poe legal victory as a vote for a more liberal interpretation of the Philippine Constitution, thereby based on the the grounds of POPULARITY rather than a strict interpretation based on the intention and spirit of the law. The ruling comes at a time with only two months before the May 9, 2016 elections. Significantly, the ruling Liberal Party Administration bet, former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, consistently lags behind poll surveys and rumors abound regarding a possible JUNKING in favor of Poe to maintain the hold of the Aquino Coalition into the next administration. Former Senator Mar Roxas lost in the 2010 Vice-Presidential race when major chunks of the then Presidential candidate Senator Benigno Aquino lll supporters opted for a non-Liberal Party ticket VP candidate, the eventual winner in the name of Jejomar Binay. The Roxas STAB IN THE BACK was initiated by the so-called Samar Group of current Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa with Senator Chiz Escudero (now running for Vice President under the Grace Poe ticket) as its vocal spokesperson. Administration Vice Presidential bet Congresswoman Leni Robredo is also lagging behind the surveys so a Noynoy Aquino switch to Grace Poe for President can also include Chiz Escudero for Vice President to preempt a possible victory for Senator Bong Bong Marcos. Senators Chiz and Bong Bong are neck and neck in the VP race and Senator Chiz may need some help from the Aquino Administration to prevent a Marcos return to Malacanang. On the 30th Anniversary of the People Power Revolution (EDSA 1), President Aquino lambasted the Marcos family for human rights violations and economic PLUNDER in an obvious attempt to prevent the son of the late unlamented Dictator from regaining the power that the Marcos family lost when they were UNCEREMONIOUSLY OUSTED from office and relegated to exile in Hawaii. Senator Grace Poe, on the other hand, publicly stated that she, in case she wins the Presidency, would appoint P-Noy as her Graft and Corruption national adviser getting sighs of relief from the Aquino camp since Senator Poe had previously stated that her administration would not bar or influence the filing and/or outcome of PLUNDER charges being prepared against the sitting President once he steps down from office (since he currently has an immunity from suits at this time). So, aside from losing influence in the next Administration, President Aquino is also moving heaven and earth to prevent being JAILED (PLUNDER is a non-bailable offense which means he could spend JAIL time while defending himself in court